


Sun-fading

by samulett



Series: samulett's Ignoct Week 2017 Fics [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Reflection, Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 15:51:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11672253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samulett/pseuds/samulett
Summary: The soft splattering of rain that has been creating intricate patterns on the windshield and side windows for hours now has become something of a comforting white noise, the perfect lullaby for a prince that could sleep just about anywhere.





	Sun-fading

**Author's Note:**

> Ignoct Week, Day 3 — Sleep
> 
> Just a short one for today. This was inspired by everkings's lovely art of these two snoozing in the back of the Regalia! Please take a peek at it here: http://everkings.tumblr.com/post/155458246256/rainy-shots
> 
> Enjoy!

Ignis should not really be surprised by this turn of events. For one thing, the night is dark, the highway ahead of them illuminated with blue light and not much else. For another, the soft splattering of rain that has been creating intricate patterns on the windshield and side windows for hours now has become something of a comforting white noise, the perfect lullaby for a prince that could sleep just about anywhere.

Tonight, though, he’s taken up residence on Ignis’s shoulder, his body having made a slow and perhaps pre-planned descent into leaning half onto Ignis’s chest while Gladio steered them around a wide bend. Ignis had twined an arm behind his neck and across his shoulders impulsively, bracing him so he wouldn’t be woken by the shift of tires beneath them.

There’s quiet, chiming music on the radio in the front seat, something Prompto had chosen before he too had drifted off, but Ignis can barely make it out. Louder in his ears is the sound of Noctis’s even breathing, his chest rising and falling like the pull of waves on an empty shore. Logically, he knows Noct’s heart does not beat loud enough for him to hear, but he thinks he can _feel_ it here between his ribs. And even if he can’t, the imaginary _thump_ is no less comforting.

Something about Noctis’s sleeping form, vulnerable and loose and ungoverned by fears or anxieties, brings to the forefront of Ignis’s mind that Noctis is _alive_. Breathing, dreaming, fingers twitching occasionally where they rest atop Ignis’s thigh in response to a faraway vision. It’s a miracle, really, that he is here when so many of the Citadel are not, when the Empire has done all it can to wipe out the very last of a bloodline it has been Ignis’s entire life to protect. It strikes him as he tilts his chin and feels the brush of messy hair against his cheek that it has been a privilege to be entrusted with this life, not because of the mantle to be carried, but because of who this young man is beneath all of that. This runs deeper than the oath he’d taken. That, impossibly, comes second to the simple faith placed upon him when Noctis decided he could fall to sleep, safe and fearless, in his arms.

Noct makes a tired noise in his sleep and Ignis’s stomach swoops, the evidence of an affection that Ignis has not the will or the means to put a single name to once again calling attention to itself. Carefully, he shifts so he can pluck the glasses from his face with the hand he had draped over Noctis’s shoulder, his other hand rising to pinch the bridge of his nose for a moment. They’re sure to be on the road for hours yet, sunrise still a long way off.

He tilts his head to rest against Noctis’s, feeling the weight of the day’s battles begin to press down on him. His hand hesitates only a moment before settling atop Noct’s, and seemingly through muscle memory, Noct’s fingers lift to fill the space in between Ignis’s, entwining even as Noctis continues to sleep. There, again, a trust so inherent Ignis aches with the honor.

His heart is a waving banner of devotion.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
